It was November and Jean finished signing a contract to purchase a new home. She called it a new home because it was a transition from a single-family home to a townhome community. Jean was excited for this new chapter in her life.
The move went smoothly and soon Jean had time to rest in her butter soft leather chair that faced floor-to-ceiling windows. She settled in and her attention was drawn to the outside.
Trees now free of their leaf camouflage, revealed their unique shape. Some had branches with a network of delicate unadorned twigs and others had twig extensions adorned with jewels of red berries. The lawn wore a cloak of brown grass and was peppered with evergreen shrubs and a cement birdbath that served a decade of bathers.
It was rumored that the south side garden had beds of lilies. Jean was pretty comfortable with terra cotta planters of bright red geraniums that adorned the patio of her previous home. Lilies? She had no experience and would wait and see.
Winter soon delivered its grey days, cold temperatures and snow covered ground. And as if to remind Jean it had a sense of humor—piled snow into the birdbath’s bowl so it looked like it was wearing a top hat. Maybe it was this unexpected humor that nudged Jean’s memory of the rumored lilies and thought of their hibernating bulbs under this blanket of snow.
Weeks passed and winter rolled into spring. Jean settled into the butter soft leather chair facing the windows that revealed another world—a world that was a sea of green. The green sea flowed from the lush lawn and cascaded over the spade-edged border of the garden the lilies called home. The ground once covered with snow was now covered with a tangle of long, slender leaves interrupted by random stalks that reached for the spring sun.
June delivered summer with the warmth usually reserved for July. It was this warmth and light that drew Jean out onto her patio for her first summer in her new home. But it was the beauty of the lilies and their fragrance that kept her there.
The entire garden was an explosion of blooms in brilliant colors that Jean couldn’t describe. Their beauty couldn’t be described by words or captured in a photograph or the brush of a talented artist. This beauty was beyond description.
Then there was the fragrance. The lilies released a scent so delicate and warm and sweet that Jean wished she could capture it in a bottle. But the most expensive, designer created floral perfumes had no equal to the fragrance that enveloped her.
Jean was overwhelmed by the beauty and fragrance of the lilies. Lilies she had no experience with. Lilies that lay quiet under winter’s blanket of snow. Lilies that responded to spring’s sun with slender leaves and tall stalks. Lilies that bloomed to release beauty and fragrance when called by summer.
What a priceless gift…
It’s Summer. Jesus is calling you to bloom!
God’s children, like the lilies, go through seasons to reach maturity…
We were once in the dead of winter. Dead in sin. But Spirit touched us and though looking pretty dead to the world—we lay quiet under Spirit’s covering until the new season of spring.
Then spring came. We became visible to the world and began to grow leaves and stalks because we were reaching for the Son.
Now it’s summer. We’re a child of God. Our identity is in Christ and we’ve matured. It’s summer and time to bloom with beauty and fragrance to draw souls to Jesus.
Respond to Jesus’ call this summer. God wants an abundant harvest and His children want that too!
Scripture and Bloom This Summer!
“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” 2 Corinthians 2: 14-16
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2
Bloom This Summer!
How will you bloom this summer?
